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TIDBITRS by RALPH SHEALY

FORTY NINE?????

It’s been 49 years, since I graduated from Saluda High School. It seems like yesterday. There are some correlations between the Classes of 1969 and 2018. We graduated in the gym of an 18-year-old building, and the Class of 2018 graduated in the gym of a 17-year-old building. The big difference is the Class of 2018 graduated in an air-conditioned gym that has four times the capacity of the Cracker Box, which was not air conditioned, like the rest of the school. There was a giant shop fan on the stage on graduation night in 1969. It sounded like a helicopter. There was also no fire marshall dictated seating capacity in those days. The gym was packed with people in the stands and in folding chairs that filled the gym floor. The chairs were stored in the giant drawers under the stage. I admire all of you who support your graduates by attending the ceremonies. Although I was not “required,” like parents, grandparents and siblings, I did my uncle duties by attending the graduations of my first seven nieces and nephews. I’ve been off the hook for a good many years, but Kailyn is a rising sophomore and Gavin is entering the sixth grade, so I may have to go back. I’ll be way too old when the “greats” start graduating. I heard from a grandfather, who shall remain anonymous, who attended to middle school graduation of his grandchild in another county. He said, “There used to be just one graduation, now they have them for everything from kindergarten on.” He said the ceremony for his grandchild lasted over two hours and his back was killing him. When the diplomas were handed out, he was excited that the program was finally over, but then they showed a 30 minute film. After I announced the Saluda spring football game last Thursday, I got a text from my college roommate Mickey Gresham, who said he was sitting in the stands at Brynes waiting for his granddaughter to graduate. He said he was hoping for rain, so he could “exit stage left.” I told him I had not heard that expression since the Snagglepuss cartoons. You’ll probably not be surprised that the next few texts from two 67-year-olds was about a cartoon character from the 60’s. Mickey said he remembered the phrase, but he didn’t recall where it came from. I told him I thought Snagglepuss was part of the “Huckleberry Hound Show.” I was wrong. I looked it up and was reminded Snagglepuss was part of the “Yogi Bear Show.” I also found out Snagglepuss was a pink mountain lion. I knew he was a mountain lion, but I didn’t know he was pink, because we had a black and white TV. Mickey then asked if Snagglepuss had a lisp. I told him he did. The next day, I got a text from Mickey telling me he was watching “Cash Cab” on TV the night before, and one of the questions was, “Who originated the phrase, exit stage left?” “It’s a sign,” he said. Good luck, Class of 2018. You’ve heard all the speeches, and encouragements. I won’t add to that, but I will share with you the title of the class song from 1969, the Tams’ “ Be Young, Be Foolish, But Be Happy.” Always stay young at heart, and, maybe, 49 years from now you can discuss cartoon characters with your college roommate!

ANOTHER COINCIDENCE

I experienced a coincidence last week along the lines of Mickey’s “exit stage left” question on “Cash Cab.” I shared this on Facebook, but for the three or four of you who are not on Facebook, this is for you. I was playing golf, so I didn’t see the royal wedding, but I saw on “Entertainment Tonight” that Prince Harry got choked up when the hymn, “Guide Me, O Thy Great Jehovah” was sung, because it was his mother Princess Diana’s favorite hymn and it was sung at her funeral. When I heard that, I thought it had been awhile since we’ve sung that hymn at Emory, and maybe I could pick the hymn one Sunday if it went with the pastor’s scripture. Our Pastor Jackie Connelly text me her scripture and sermon title for this Sunday’s bulletin Tuesday, and Thursday when I went to a website that suggests hymns to go along with scripture, and put in Exodus 17:1-7, guess what was the very first hymn it suggested? That’s right. "Guide Me, O Thy Great Jehovah!” I told the congregation this “God wink” story Sunday, before we sang that great old hymn!

WINDOWS 10 NIGHTMARE

Last Tuesday morning, I made a major mistake. Our network did not show up in Explorer that Jackie and I use to share the pages back and forth we make up. So, I decided to reset the computer. I got a message “install update and restart.” “It will only take a few minutes,” I thought. “Wrong!!!!! It was only after I hit the install update did Jackie tell me the update on her computer the night before took almost three hours. I didn’t have three hours! Fortunately, I had already made PDFs for four of our six pages, and emailed them to our printer. That’s the good news. The bad news is the only computer we have set up to make PDFs is the computer that was updating. Jackie put the last two pages I had to finished on a thumb drive, and I drove home to complete the pages on my home computer. I drove back to town and watched the computer continue to update. Finally, I drove to Bruners and let them take the last two pages off the thumb drive. Thursday, I discovered my printer no longer worked, thanks to update. It took me a couple of hours to get it going. With “friends” like Windows 10 update, who needs enemies?

TERMITE

A tradition at Emory is when we get a new preacher and they hear the name “Termite,” they say, “Termite? I’ve never heard that one before.” With the passing of our pastor last June, we’ve had three different pastors in the meantime, and two of them asked that question. The other was Wayne Horne, who grew up here, so he knew Termite. Sadly, our new pastor won’t be asking that question, because Termite lost his battle with cancer Sunday. Growing up at Emory, I’ve known Rudolph “Termite” Minick all my life. He married my Class of ‘69 classmate Sandra Sudduth, so he became an honorary member of our class, too. For thousands of Saludans who shopped Piggly Wiggly, Termite was a legend to young and old. They all remember him for his kindness and humor. He was simply put, a funny man, with a laugh you’ll remember. The last time I saw Termite was at the funeral of his fellow Piggly Wiggly meat cutter, Tommy Willis. It probably took a lot of effort for him to be there, but he had to pay tribute to his friend, because that’s the kind of guy Termite was Now, five months later, the two old friends are together. My sympathy to Sandra, Burt, Jamie and all the family. Termite, the man and the name, will be missed.